THE NEW PROVINCES ACT AMENDMENT ACT.

Press, Volume I, Issue 21, 12 October 1861, Page 1

THE NEW PROVINCES ACT AMENDMENT ACT.

"When the General Assembly met for the late session the question of most general 'nterest, next to the Native War, was the New Provinces Act. It was the pet measure of the late Ministers. It was the bitterest grievance complained of by the Wellington party. It had been often attacked, but without buccess. Now however the time was come. Ofcngo and Nelson had Buffered as well as Wellington, and little doubt was entertained that, on the meeting of the Assembly, the Act would be repealed by a large majority. It was even whispered that the Stafford Ministry would make no stand on the measure ; that they were satisfied that it had done ita work, and were indifferent whether it were repealed or not. They would not accept ita repeal as a defeat. There can be no doubt however that one of the elements of unpopularity which resulted in the vote of want of confidence was this much disputed Act. When the late Ministry was turned out, anft when Mr. Fox, the leader of the Wellington party, came into power, it was doubtful what his policy would be on many matters ; but on one subject there was no doubt. As a matter of course he would repeal the New Provinces Act. If an opposition could have commanded a majority against the bill, much more could a Government secure its repeal. Nor were there any elements in the new Government to throw any doubt on the anticipated result. Mr. Ward had been one of the strongest opponents of the subdivision of Provinces not only in the House, but in the journal which is supposed to speak his views. Nothing then could well be more startling than the intelligence that the Session had ended, that Mr. Fox and Mr. Ward had been in office a considerable time, and that the New Provinces Act was not only not

repealed, but actually, as it were, formally re-enacted and re-assertedby having been amended. On the face of it a more strange piece of political inconsistency could not be exhibited. On enquiry, however, after endeavouring to elicit the real truth from the tangled mass of motion and counter-motion and amendment and rejoinder, we are inclined to acquit Mr. Fox and his colleagues of blame for the untoward result. Far otherwise with the rest of his party. It appears that Ministers proposed to repeal those clauses of the Act which empowered the constitution of JS T ew Provinces, leaving the remainder of the clauses as they were. A motion was then made by an Otago member, Mr. Dick, to add to the Act a clause creating a machinery by which any New Province might re-unite itself to ita parent Province, should it become tired of its independent existence. Dr. Featherston, Mr. Fitzherbert, and all the "Wellington party united with the Otago members in insisting that this re-uniting clause should be made a part of the government measure, or they would vote against the second reading. So far as the Wellington party are concerned, it is difficult to conceive a more thoroughly unprincipled Act. It is a most disgraceful fact that Dr. Featherston and his party after raving against this Act for two years, after pledging themselves over and over again in the most public manner to its repeal—it is, we are pained to say, a most shameful fact, that Dr. Featherston and his friends actually recorded their votes against the repeal of the Act. We have enquired what explanation there can be for such open inconsistency, and, so far as we can learn, the only cause was this: that these gentlemen hoped by holding over the Canterbury members the threat of having their own Province subdivided, to force them all into the same boat with Wellington. If this were the object, it has of course been, and will be, unsuccessful. But it shews that Dr. Featherston has really no political principle whatever except — Wellington and his parti/. He opposed the New Provinces Act not because it was a subversion of the Constitution of the Colony, because it was virtually a complete revolution, but only because it operated to lessen the importance of Wellington, and the dignity and power of its Sub-Eegulus. So far as it injured Wellington, the Superintendent was bitterly hostile ; when Wellington interests were not concerned, when there was no hope of restoring the lost district to his rule, Dr. Featherston voted directly opposite to every opinion he has hitherto held.

"We do not understand that Mr. Fox actually refused to admit the principle of re-union. He declined to make it a part of the government plan, and argued that the proposed clause could be introduced and discussed in committee. But we should cordially have agreed with Ministers if they had set their face against such a system. If there be one principle more important than another to the successful working of all government, it is that any fundamental and constitutional changes should be permanent. If the doctrine of re-union be once admitted, no sooner would a New Province have attained its independence and its government been organized, than an agitation by the minority, stimulated by the parent province would instantly commence for the destruction of the new-born government. It might and probably would Happen that districts might declare their independence one year, and lose it again the next; and again separate the following year, again to re-unite the the year after, as the caprice of parties, or the unpopularity of their leaders swayed for a time the public will. It would be utterly hopeless to expect that any thing like good government could be evolved out of such a system. On the widest constitutional grounds, therefore, we conceive that the amendment ought to have been opposed by ministers. It is not because Canterbury is likely to be divided but upon general policy that we oppose the whole principle and operation of the New Provinces Act and still look forward to its absolute repeal. The six Provinces first established by the Constitution Act were not formed arbitrarily or fancifully. They really included six separate colonies, founded by separate interests, having separate and direct intercourse with England, carrying on a separate and direct-immigration, and having comparatively very little intercourse with one another. At Canterbury for example, we have.known English news to a later datethau news from Auckland, and even, if we reniember rightly, from Ot*go. The Constitution

Act did not make six separate Provinces; it simply recognised what it found in existence.

The creation of !N"ew Provinces beyond those six was afundamental alteration of the Constitution of the colony. Hawke's Bay was an off-shoot from Wellington, and had little direct trade with England; Marlborough and Southland none at all. It is quite clear to us thatthesenewgovernmentswillnotfor some time receive any large immigration from England ; if indeed any at all. Their limited funds will he expended in the staff of government and in local public works. The parent provinces, with curtailed resources, will also be compelled to curtail the assistance to immigrants ; so that, on the whole, it is clear the colony will be peopled sloioer with these new centres of Government than without them. The principle too of allowing any population, or part of a population in any district to remodel its own government, not only without any voice on the part of the General Legislature, but even in spite of the local government under which it now lives, is one so—we will not say democratic, but so anarchic in its character and tendencies, that it is hard to comprehend how such conservative minds as those of Mr. Weld and Mr. Tancred could have been cajoled into approval of such a scheme; and that merely for the sake of obtaining for out-districts a fair expenditure of public funds, as if there could have been devised no other remedy for so small an evil.

As matters now stand, the Constitution of New Zealand is entirely changed. The Provinces must inevitably be cut up until they will become only Counties or parishes. The Superintendency, at first different from a Lieutenant-Governorship only in name, will become (has in many parts already become) an office of neither great trust nor high dignity. All the important powers of government must assuredly fall into the hands of the Governor of the Colony and his ministers. Whatever objection there was to a variety of codes of law in different parts of the Colony, that objection becomes of additional weight and importance in proportion to the number of such codes. There was some excuse for having different laws for Auckland and Canterbury, because those two communities were essentially different in their interests, the descriptions of their property, and their industrial occupations; but there can be no excuse for having distinct legislatures in Otago and Southland, two communities essentially similar in almost every respect. The very fact then of the existence of so many provincial legislatures will, as a matter of course, be followed by a limitation in their powers of making laws. The General Assembly will gradually absorb into itself the great bulk of the powers hitherto exercised by the Provinces. Every fresh Act passed by the General Assembly curtails the provincial powers, because the Constitution debars the local legislatures from interfering with the Acts of Assembly. Tor example, two months ago Canterbury could lawfully pass an act on the subject of importing diseased cattle ; the General Assembly has legislated on the subject, and the Provinces can do so no more. There is one subject less on which a Provincial Council can legislate.

The New Provinces Act, then, was a great revolutionary measure, and to our minds its repeal two or three years hence will be a matter, of no importance. The colony is now in a transition state as affects its constitution. And the man of all others whom we may thank for the mischief is Dr. Featherston: with Provincialism on his tongue, he has been the successful agent of Centralism. He brought provincial institutions into evil odour by his peculiar mode of working them, and he has now completed his work by perpetuating the Act, which must in a few years finally consign them to oblivion.